Forrest Gump

Robert Zemeckis (of Back to the Future fame) has
collected another feather for his cap with his direction of this movie
starring Tom Hanks as this childishly naive idiot savant. Though that
description of Forrest Gump might be inadequate.

Gump, gifted with a low IQ which lets him be adorably childlike even
as he grows up, leads a very charmed life: a mother who loves him
immensely and who sleeps with the school principal in order to make
sure her child has the best education, a miraculous incident that
eliminates the need for him to have braces for his legs, a childhood
girlfriend who remains faithful to him till the end, surviving Vietnam
with a medal, and, in general, a propensity for turning everything
that happens to him into good.

I wonder what the movie is trying to say. From one perspective, it
implies that intelligence (as measured by IQs and the general idea of
what "smart" is) is a very unnecessary trait. But I think one can
look beyond that and say that childlike innocence, which can be
considered stupid, has its rewards. Throughout the movie, Gump is in
situations where he is harassed by other people but he never takes
offense (except, of course, when his girl Jenny is being abused) at
any of the insults thrown at him. He is indeed not completely stupid,
even though he is portrayed as such, since he can re-assemble guns at
high speed, run like crazy, play ping-pong like a maniac, and so on.

The fact that Gump doesn't take offense, I think, is what keeps him
content. He becomes a millionaire, but gives most of the money away.
He is honest and open and this, along with his Alabama accent, endears
him to the audience. But this gets tiresome after a while (especially
after 2 hours). I thought the movie was overly long, but that's the
only negative thing I have to say.

Gump rubs elbows with many famous personalities over the last half
of the century including Elvis Presley and Nixon, thanks to computer
technology (General Dan doesn't really lose his legs either---they are
just erased and the background is then touched up by using computer
graphics programs). The account of how Gump is responsible for the
gyrations that is so characteristic of Presley is very telling of the
motives of this movie. Gump is contrasted to the famous males, who
are idols (in some cases) in today's society, and it appears as though
he is better off in comparison: Gump's choices in life seem to
determine his niceness (he goes to Vietnam, keeps his promises ("a
promise is a promise"), harbours no ill-feelings or grudges, and is
not greedy with fame or money) and successes. Contrast this to the
choices his lifetime girl friend Jenny makes: she wants to be famous
and rich, but ends up being a druggie. The people she is surrounded
by are all of a dubious nature: a sexually-abusive father, a show
audience more interested in her naked body than her folk-music
playing, and an abusive hippie-boyfriend.

The traditional male heroes that we have had are all dysfunctional in
some respect or another and we are lost without heroes, as Bloom
points out. Gump is a new kind of a role-model; he's A Nice Boy and
everyone knows they're hard to find. As one reviewer said: "Today the
last American hero is a Tom Hanks character with a small IQ".

Forrest Gump is the runaway hit movie of this summer.
Many people claim it gets them in touch with their "inner child".
Some reviewers attack it for the view that low IQ is a necessity for
maintaining the child-like attitude Gump has. Gump never grows up or
matures in the movie. He never becomes a man and remains a boy
throughout. It is implied, at least, that his "stupidity" is what
allows him to do this. This may or may not be true, but it is just a
movie in the end. Most people in his position would not be so
fortunate as he. And what about the converse: if you are intelligent,
does this mean you cannot be child-like forever? That's not true, and
I think Zemeckis did a good job in showing that anyone can
retain their inner child as long they never grow up or become mature.

There's room for much analysis here, but the plot isn't new.
Peter Sellers did this a long time ago.

"I'm tired now. I think I'm going home." --Forrest Gump

"Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what
you're going to get." --Forrest Gump